The invention is directed to a method for monitoring and controlling the operation of rotary drums borne on sliding blocks such as, for example, tube mills, rotary tubular kilns, etc., that are seated on sliding block shoes charged with compressed oil. The invention is also directed to a sliding block bearing for such rotating drums
It is known to bear large, heavy rotary tubes such as, for example, tube mills on a plurality of sliding block shoes that are arranged distributed around the lower rotary tube circumference and are operated hydrostatically and/or hydrodynamically, whereby the rotary tube bears on cushions of compressed oil that is pressed into the lubricating gap between the sliding block shoes and the supported running surface of the rotating drum. For monitoring the operation of the sliding block bearing via a temperature sensor, only the temperature of the compressed oil flowing off from the sliding block was hitherto measured. When the thickness of the compressed oil film carrying the rotary tube or, respectively, the thickness of the lubricating gap becomes too small during operation, the compressed oil heats. During operation of such tube mills borne on sliding blocks, the temperature sensor for the compressed oil was therefore already used to output an alarm signal upon upward transgression of a compressed oil temperature of, for example, 90.degree. C. and to shut the tube mill off when an even higher, maximally allowed compressed oil temperature is upwardly exceeded. Further, the pressure and the flow through quantity of the compressed oil guided in the circulation have been measured by utilizing a pressure monitor and a flow-through monitor.
The measured quantities of temperature, of pressure as well as the flow-through amount of the compressed oil, however, are not necessarily representative of the conditions at the sliding block, particularly for the thickness of the lubricating gap that is present thereat or not present thereat. In particular, the measuring point for the pressure as well as the flow-through quantity of the compressed oil are necessarily at a great distance from the actual location of occurrence, namely from the sliding block supporting surface, if only for spatial reasons. Added thereto is that the measured result of the temperature sensor, of the pressure monitor and/or of the flow-through monitor for the compressed oil has great inertia. At any rate, whether the lubricating gap at the hydrostatically and/or hydrodynamically operated bearing block is adequately large or even zero during operation of a tube mill seated on sliding blocks, could previously not be identified with certainty.